Congo was emerging independent with birth-pangs of suffering, a suffering that touched the whole world with it's gravity and bloodshed. Not far from it's epicentre is Lubutu,a distant station of our Congo field.It was 15th February 1961, and the situation in this area had deteriorated rapidly. Reports were reaching us as various "whites" were imprisioned, beaten and maltreated. Truck-loads of soliders passed by our station and we called our boys, Murray and Barry, and warned them to keep well away from the road, for like all children, they must see every car that passes.At T-- the Roman Catholic priests and sisters were imprisoned.Surely our time had come. We desperately needed a word from the Lord, and on our knees we recieved it with such directness that our hearts were immediately calmed. It was Psa 93:3-4 "The floods have lifted up,O LORD,the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.The LORD on high is mightier than the noise, of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Then came that assuring injunction in Jer 5:22 "Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it:and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?" We felt the Lord had set a bound to the restless waves of violence that so far they might come,but no farther.
Children are very susceptible to situations no matter how we seek to shield and save them from the facts.At bedtime devotions we especially prayed for protection.After the "Amen",Barry looked up and said, "Mummy, how can we get courage?" so we all prayed again specifically for courage no matter what lay ahead.Then in no time they were asleep. Cyril and I were on our own.We had only one concern and that was for the children. There and then we prayerfully brought them to the Lord,asking that He would deliver from all fear so that they also would be a testimony. Next morning the children awoke singing. I could not stop them even at
the breakfast table! when we lifted Collen in to her high chair,she joined in with three spontaneous "Hallelujahs!"
Soliders came to the station that morning,but with no evil intent,and one of our teachers learned from them later that during that night they had left the village and marched up the road to the Mission station. The soliders, stimulated by drink,admitted they had every intention of violence upon the little family,but barring the road was an unseen Hand. They could advance no farther in spite of the smouldering hatred in their hearts.Frustrated and perplexed they returned to the village.The children slept, unmolested and undisturbed, in the safety of the hollow of His hand.God had stepped in.
---Joy Taylor Congo
selected from book "Then God stepped in"